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hnia. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hnia, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hnia in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
hnia you have here. The definition of the word
hnia will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
hnia, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
White Hmong
Etymology
From Proto-Hmong-Mien *hmji̯əmH (“to sniff at”),[1] likely related to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s-nam (“to smell”), whence Tibetan སྣོམ་པ (snom pa, “to smell”) and Chinese 聞／闻 (wén, “to smell; to hear”).[2] The "kiss" meaning is a semantic extension of the original "sniff" meaning.[2]
Pronunciation
Verb
hnia
- to sniff at, to smell something intentionally
- to kiss
- Kuv xav hnia koj. ― I want to kiss you.
References
- Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary, SEAP Publications, →ISBN, page 69.